Aspects of the present invention relate to protecting privacy of a browser user, and more particularly to a method, system and computer program product for reducing the value of a browser fingerprint.
In current times, use of the Internet for web browsing continues to find new users and gain in popularity among historic users in part because of expanding Internet resources and tools such as, for example, widespread availability of online marketplaces, ever-increasing breadth of blogging topics as well as the number and quality of blogs, among others. Unfortunately, as Internet users continue to increase their use of the Internet for traditionally non-electronic endeavors such as shopping, seeking out current events information and the like, users will also continue to encounter ever more sophisticated schemes for invading their privacy.
When an Internet user directs his or her browser to a website, the browser interacts with a web server hosting the website. The browser typically has many installed add-on applications, referred to as plugins, for performing various supplemental, and in some cases essential, functions during the web browsing experience. In order to gain insight into the capabilities of a browser, a web server can request a list of plugins installed on the browser. Then, the web server might, in some instances, modify the content it provides to the browser based on the return list of plugins. The plugins installed on the browser, and in some cases other data or characteristics of the browser, when compiled in a list can represent a fingerprint of the browser. In many, in fact most, cases the browser fingerprint is unique to the browser. Accordingly, the fingerprint, that is, the list of plugins tends to identify the specific browser, thereby inherently posing a privacy threat. A method for reducing the value of the browser fingerprint by adding real and/or fake plugins, each being installed or uninstalled on the browser, to the list of plugins returned by the browser in response to a request for the list is needed.